My Family’s Apple Cobbler Recipe
For nearly my whole life, my parents have lived on a dreamy piece of land where they have sheep, chickens, flowers galore, a bee hive and, best of all, an apple orchard. The orchard meant that I grew up eating fresh apple everything, apple cakes, apple pie (regular and Dutch-style), apple crisps and so many homemade apple cobblers.
My mother is the best no-recipe baker you’ve ever met, and this apple cobbler recipe is my best attempt to mimic her delicious cobblers. When you eat it, warm from the oven topped with vanilla ice cream, I hope you’ll think of Sue’s orchard. I sure do.
The Best Apples For Cobbler
I use Granny Smith apples, because I do not have an apple orchard at my house, and because I love how the tart apples stand up to the brown sugar and spices that I add to the cobbler filling. I find that using super sweet apples, like Honeycrisps, actually make the filling a bit boring. Better to save sweet apples for eating fresh, and tart ones for baking.
Cobbler VS. Crisp
People often get these two fruity desserts confused, but over the years I’ve figured out an easy way to keep them straight. So a crisp (like this mixed berry crisp) has a truly crisp topping, more like a crumbly oat-y, brown sugary crumb topping. Meanwhile, a cobbler has a topping that looks a bit like cobblestone streets, with mounds of dough that puff up and often merge together as they bake, making a cobbled, biscuit-like topping. Now you know!
Homemade Apple Cobbler Ingredients
- Apples: Cored and peeled.
- Butter: I use salted butter for the filling and unsalted for the dough.
- Flour: Nothing fancy here, just regular all-purpose flour.
- Sugar: You’ll need three kinds of sugar for this recipe. Brown sugar, white sugar and turbinado sugar to finish the cobbler.
- Spices: Cinnamon and nutmeg are what I use, but you can also add a pinch of other classic baking spices, like cardamom or ginger, if you want to warm up the flavors even more. Some people even add a little fresh vanilla bean to the filling.
- Lemon: This brings the apple filling to life!
- Baking powder: The leavening in the cobbler dough.
- Heavy cream: Cream makes the biscuit dough so tender.
- Egg: Just enough to brush on top of the biscuit topping to make them glossy and gorgeous.
How To Store & Freeze Apple Cobbler
You can prep the filling a day ahead of time, but the cobbler topping needs to be made right before baking. OR, you can freeze the entire cobbler (unbaked) for up to 3 months if you’d like to work way ahead of time. Don’t forget to use a freezer-safe dish, and cover it well.
When you’re ready to eat the cobbler, just bake the entire thing from frozen! Heat the oven to 350°F, and add about 20 minutes to the baking time in the recipe. It’s also possible to freeze an already baked cobbler. Let it cool completely, wrap it tightly and store for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to eat it, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat at 350°F for 30 minutes.
Tips for The Best Apple Cobbler
- Slice the apples evenly so they cook at the same rate. One of these handy apple peeler-slicer tools is sort of ideal for making cobbler. Bonus: Kids are obsessed with using them.
- Treat the cobbler topping like any biscuit or shortcake dough! Cold cold butter is key. If you have to pause along the way as you make the dough, pop it in the fridge. You want to keep it COLD.
- Don't overwork the biscuit dough. A shaggy (not perfectly smooth) dough is what you want! It creates the most tender, flaky topping.
- Leave small gaps between the biscuits so steam can escape while the cobbler bakes.
More Cozy Fruit Desserts
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